Review: The House of Tesla – Definitive Edition

In The House of Tesla, we explore Nikola Tesla’s abandoned laboratories and slowly but surely reveal his vision of wireless energy transfer. While solving the various puzzles, we learn parts of the secret through flashbacks and recorded documents. Thus, slowly but surely, we come one step closer to the truth about what actually happened.

Puzzle mechanics and gameplay

The gameplay is just like Boxes: Lost Fragments and The Room — puzzle games where you find the solution by turning objects, pulling out drawers, screwing or unscrewing gadgets, and simply lifting the right lid. What distinguishes House of Tesla: Definitive Edition from the aforementioned games is that this time you also have electricity to use to solve the puzzles, which actually helps give the game an extra dimension. Something else that is different is that there is also a storyline that you unlock with each puzzle.

Atmosphere, graphics, and game feel

I really like these kinds of games; it is so wonderfully satisfying to succeed with an extra tricky puzzle. House of Tesla: Definitive Edition also has a very nice atmosphere with beautiful, detailed environments and good ambient music and sound effects. The graphics for the characters sometimes feel slightly dated and stiff, but on the whole, it is nothing that significantly disrupts the overall experience.

The puzzles are usually quite simple, but there are some that are considerably more fiddly. You always have the opportunity to get hints on where to go and what to do if you get stuck. You even have the option to skip a puzzle if it is too difficult or just too time-consuming. There were a couple of times I skipped puzzles because I wanted to get further into the game in a shorter time for the sake of the review — in those cases solely because it would take a great deal of time to complete them, even though I already had the solution.

Limitations and frustrations

The downside of House of Tesla: Definitive Edition is that the replay value is quite low, because once you have solved a puzzle, it remains the same forever, and thus there is no difference in playing it again. There are no side quests to complete.

The other thing that bothered me a bit is that, just like in most games of this type, you cannot walk and move as you please. You can only click your way to the next section. In one sequence, there is a machine part moving on a conveyor belt, and I spent far too much time trying to go to it without success. Eventually, I realized it is not something I need or should have. It can also be difficult to know where you can actually go if you click slightly in the wrong place.

Control choices and technical requirements

I recommend playing the game with a mouse as it is easier to scan the area. It is possible to play with a controller, but I found it much more cumbersome.

Currently, House of Tesla: Definitive Edition is only available for PC and you need a minimum of 8 GB RAM, but the developers recommend 16 GB. They also recommend a GeForce GTX 970 graphics card or equivalent.

I experienced no technical problems while playing, either on my desktop or laptop. Both have the recommended performance or higher, so there were no issues.

Summary and overall impression

In summary, I would like to recommend House of Tesla: Definitive Edition, as it is a well-made and fun puzzle game with the added bonus of having an interesting story. The title ”Definitive Edition” was given to the game upon its re-release this year after the creators listened to the players and made improvements to the version released in September last year.

Blue Brains Games sent a review code for this test. Senders of material have no editorial influence on our tests.